Carola again gave him her full, almost blank glance.
“I do not know,” she answered, rather strangely, he thought, then added, all in a breath, “Do not let us go into the house; I want to show you the garden.”
She led the way to a door at the side of the mansion—a tall door with a ring-shaped handle—and, opening it, beckoned the Marquis to follow her. They went down a narrow stone passage with a wall one side and the house the other; then the opening of another gate admitted them into the garden.
Luc had been prepared for splendour of statuary, walk, arbour, and fountain, after the designs of Lenôtre, or perhaps some Eastern fantasy of trellises and hanging creepers. What he saw, as Carola Koklinska motioned him to pass her, was utterly different.
He found himself in a large garden bounded by high walls on all sides save one, where the sombre, dark pile of the mansion overshadowed it; a narrow, neglected gravel path ran round under the walls, from which it was only separated by an unkempt edging of long grass and thick-leaved weeds. At the extreme end of the garden, which was of considerable length, was a row of seven very tall poplar trees which caught the last rays of sunlight in their topmost branches. For the rest the garden was a mere stretch of fresh May-time grass neglected and growing tall enough to bend in a sad fashion before the slight evening breeze.
Near the poplars was a plain wooden seat, and behind this showed the sole flowers in the garden—a clump of wallflowers growing out of, and on, the high brick wall.
Luc noticed the poplars first, for their great height and straightness reminded him of the silver firs in Bohemia, then the flowers, their sturdy charm and the bold lustre of their colouring.
“Do you like this place, Monsieur?” asked Carola, as she closed the door behind her.
“It reminds me of a convent or a prison, Madame,” he answered; “but it is doubtless a fair place for meditation.”
They were walking slowly down the gravel path, towards the poplar trees. Luc looked back and saw that the windows of the house were all shuttered, and that there was no sign of life.